Images

A closer of the new steaming. The thick vegetation obscures direct views of the ground crack, and only a line of steaming and browned vegetation is evident at the surface.

Slow-moving pāhoehoe advances through thick forest northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The pāhoehoe lobes surround, and burn through, the base of the trees. By the time the trees topple over, the lava surface temperature has cooled sufficiently that the downed trees do not completely burn through, leaving a field of tree trunks on the recent lava surface.

Closer to the vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, one of several skylights provides a view of the flowing lava stream within the lava tube. This lava tube supplies lava from the vent to the active surface flows near the flow front.

Map showing the June 27th flow in Kīlauea's East Rift Zone as of August 28, 2014. The area of the flow as mapped on August 27 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of August 28 is shown in red. All older lava flows (1983-2014) are shown in gray. The thin yellow line marks a portion of the lava tube feeding the flow.

A closer view of the southern lobe of the June 27th lava flow. Smoke plumes originate from active surface breakouts, the farthest today reached 8.5 km (5.3 miles) from the vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The spot at which this lobe plunged into a deep ground crack last week can be seen near the bottom of the photograph.

The isolated pad of lava that emerged from the deep ground crack several days ago did not have any active breakouts at the surface today, but incandescent lava could be seen in numerous cracks on the surface. This likely represents lava that had ponded within the flow and remains hot, but immobile.

The June 27th flow remains active, but surface flows at the very farthest reaches of the flow appear to have stalled today. The lava flow front consisted of an isolated pad of lava that emerged from a deep ground crack several days ago. Today, this pad of lava appeared inactive at the surface, with no sign obvious activity in the adjacent crack.

Another view of the south lobe of the June 27th flow, which plunged into a deep ground crack last week (this spot is visible at the right side of the photograph). This wide view, looking west, also shows another deep crack nearby, a short distance to the south of the active flows (which are producing the smoke plumes).

A comparison of the normal photograph (see above) of the south lobe of the June 27th flow with an equivalent view from the thermal camera. The thermal camera clearly shows the extent of the farthest active breakout, which was relatively small.

The new volcanic-gas monitoring station installed at Mount St. Helens consists of weather monitoring equipment and sensors for measuring the concentrations of water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in volcanic gas plumes.

The leading edge of the June 27th lava flow plunged into a deep crack on Kīlauea's East Rift Zone last week, and lava within the crack remained hidden for several days. Over the past day, lava returned to the surface at a point slightly farther along the crack, creating a small island of lava surrounded by thick forest.

View of the pad of lava with the equivalent view from a thermal camera.

A view of the small pad of lava that has emerged from the crack over the past day. The lava pad was about 800 m (0.5 miles) long, and was about 1.3 km (0.8 miles) east of the point where lava plunged into the crack.

Another view of the isolated pad of lava that has emerged from the crack. This view is towards the east, along the East Rift Zone. The spot at which lava flowed into the crack is to the west, out of view beyond the bottom of the photograph.

Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater remains partly obscured by thick fume. In particular, the northeastern portion of the crater (bottom left part of image) has recently been entirely obscured to the naked eye, but the thermal camera provides a clear view through the fume, revealing a small lava pond.

Map showing the June 27th flow in Kīlauea's East Rift Zone as of August 25, 2014. The area of the flow as mapped on August 22 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of August 25 is shown in red. The brown line marks the ground crack that channeled lava to the east, where it emerged to form a new pad of lava over the past couple of days.

Map showing the June 27th flow in Kīlauea's East Rift Zone as of August 22, 2014. The area of the flow as mapped on August 12 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of August 22 is shown in red. The heavy brown line marks the extent of steaming along a ground crack into which lava is flowing.

A closer look at the lava stream plunging into the crack. The lava is fed from the vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō via a lava tube.

North of where lava is entering the crack, another lobe is pushing through thick forest, triggering small brush fires. The source of the smoke marks the front of this lobe, and Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō can be seen just above this spot.

Looking west, this photo shows the far end of the steaming that extends out beyond the visible flow margin at the surface.

A closer look at one of the steam sources. The crack from which steam is issuing is not visible through the thick vegetation.